Form of the Nutcracker. 239 



Russia to Kamtschatka and Japan_, appearing more or less 

 irregularly in winter in Western and Southern Europe^ as is 

 the wont of gipsy migrants. The Western form is a resident 

 in various forests of Western Europe, the Alps, Black Forest, 

 the Carpathians, the Hartz Mountains, northwards to the 

 Baltic Provinces and Scandinavia south of the Arctic Circle. 

 Dr. Blasius says that the two forms differ in the height of 

 the bill (which he measures halfway between the base and 

 tip), and in the amount of white at the tips of the outer tail- 

 feathers (which he measures on the inner web). The mea- 

 surements translated into decimals of an inch are as follows : — 



Height of bill. White on tail, 



in. in. in. in. 



Eastern Form -35 to '44 1-3 to '9 



Western „ -47 to -01 -9 to '6 



Whilst I agree with the general result at which Dr. Blasius 

 has arrived, I differ from him in several important details. 

 The series which I have examined contains not much more 

 than half his total number of skins, but of examples from 

 Asia I have been able to examine more than four times as 

 many. The length of the bill varies from 1^ to 2 inches, 

 so that it is scarcely fair to measure the height exactly in 

 the middle. I have therefore taken the height from the 

 angle of the gonys to the nearest point on the ridge of the 

 upper mandible. My results are as follows : — 



Height of bill. White on tail, 



in in. in. in. 



Siberia and China -40 to -52 1-25 to -8 



•p, _^ ( presumed migrant '47 to "5 1'2 to "8 



I presumed resident "5 to 6 "95 to '75 



Japan -5 to '6 11 to -9 



It therefore seems that there is not an Eastern and a 

 Western form, as there is of the Bar-tailed and Black-tailed 

 Godwits, but an Arctic and a Temperate form, as there is of 

 the Hazel Grouse, the Nuthatch, and the Marsh Tit, The 

 Siberian form appears sometimes to winter in North China, 

 as well as in Southern and Western Europe, but the Japanese 



